Target group

All citizens and organisations are welcome to contribute to this consultation.The consultation can particularly be of interest for citizens or undertakings using road passenger transport services in their activity, road transport workers and companies engaged in the passenger transport chain. It can also be of particular interest for regional, national or international public authorities and other organisations directly involved in the road passenger transport sector.

Context and objective of the consultation

The consultation is aiming at:

providing the wide public and stakeholders with an opportunity to express their views on all elements relevant for the functioning of the internal market in road passenger transport, as well as to express their positions on the possible/desirable changes to the regulatory framework; and

gathering specialised input (data and factual information, expert views) on specific aspects of the legislation (e.g. national markets for regular services, terminals, etc.) from the enforcement community and from the industry, in order to prepare the impact assessment and the legislative proposal.

The Regulation was adopted as a part of the package of measures aimed at modernising the rules governing admission to the occupation of road transport operator and access to the road transport market. The main objective of the Regulation is to contribute to the completion of the internal market for coach and bus services and to increase the market’s efficiency and competitiveness to generate a shift in the use of private passenger cars to coach and bus services.

The Regulation is to a large extent a recast of two regulations that had created an internal market for bus and coach services. Previously the market was regulated (and often restricted) by national legislation and by bilateral agreements between the Member States. The recast only introduced minor changes of substance, such as reporting obligations for Member States.

The aim of the Regulation is to provide for a coherent framework which is expected to result in open competition for international and domestic commercial (i.e. no public service contract) bus and coach services. Its scope covers the international carriage of passengers by coach and bus within the territory of the Union by carriers for hire and reward or by own-account carriers.

In 2015, the Commission launched an ex-post evaluation of the Regulation to assess the implementation of the Regulation and its effects over the period 2009 to 2015. The ex-post evaluation builds on a 2009 fact-finding study and a second fact-finding study carried out in 2016. These studies provide a comprehensive and comparative overview of the evolving and current situation of the coach industry in the EU through an analysis of trends and possible future developments in respect of key EU priorities: efficient mobility, co-modality, fair competition and social aspects.

The ex-post evaluation of the Regulation has indicated that the main problems linked to the Regulation are the inability of coach and bus services to gain market share vis-à-vis other modes of transport and restricted competition between undertakings. The Commission aims to to identify or confirm the main problems and also to consider whether policy intervention is justified to address these problems through an impact assessment exercise. This public consultation is carried out in the context of this exercise.

Disclaimer

Please note that this document has been drafted for information and consultation purposes only. It has not been adopted or in any way approved by the European Commission and should not be regarded as representative of the views of Commission staff. It does not in any way prejudge, or constitute the announcement of, any position on the part of the Commission on the issues covered. The European Commission does not guarantee the accuracy of the information provided, nor does it accept responsibility for any use made thereof.